◾ a character-based Tolkien fic exchange

◾ Rules & FAQ

- Fic needs to be a minimum of 500 words. - Fanart needs to be at least a nice sketch on unlined paper. - The gift needs to meet the request with regards to character, fandom(s), and category that the recipient has asked for.- Treats are highly encouraged!- Please comment on your gift(s).

Can we nominate the same character under different 'fandoms' - i.e., can Aragorn be nominated under both 'The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien' and 'Lord of the Rings (Movies)'?

Yes. We want to keep the books and movies separate for this exchange, so if you would be happy to see Aragorn, for instance, in fic or art involving either book canon or movie canon, please nominate him (separately) under both. You would nominate him like this to differentiate:

AO3 will not let you nominate a character under two different fandoms if you have not differentiated them.

How do I nominate?

Go to the Tag Set and click on My Nominations. Fill in the first 'fandom' you want from the list above - it will auto-complete after a moment. Add up to 10 characters you want to request and/or offer in that 'fandom'. You may nominate in up to 5 'fandoms'. If you are nominating a character who appears in multiple canons, do so by adding (Tolkien) for a book canon, (Jackson) for a movie canon, (SoM) for Shadow of Mordor, and (LOTRO) for Lord of the Rings Online. See the tag set for examples of ones that have already been added.

Can I nominate relationships or pairings?

No, only characters. When you sign up, you will be able to select what category or categories of fic or art you would like - m/m, f/f, f/m, gen, other, or multi. This should mean you will receive the kind of fic or art you'd prefer to offer or request.

How do offers and requests work for this exchange?

Most exchanges have you sign up to write or receive relationships or pairings, but this exchange is all about individual characters.

Once nominations are complete, when you go to the signup form, you will be able to pick the fandom you want your characters to come from, then the characters themselves. You'll be able to choose a minimum of 3 fandoms and a maximum of 10, and you will be able to repeat fandoms. As you choose the characters you want, you will also be asked to pick the category or categories of fic you would like to offer or receive - gen, m/m, f/f, f/m, multi, or other. You will be able to pick 'any' for the category if you have no preference.

For instance, if you want fic or art about Celebrimbor, you can pick The Silmarillionor Shadow of Mordor as fandoms, then enter Celebrimbor as your character. If you only want to receive gen or het for him, you would then tick the f/m and gen boxes. Then you would tick 'any' for the Fic or Art boxes.

Then you would move on to your next fandom and character. Let's say you wanted to see fic about Aragorn, but you definitely only wanted fic based on the books, not the movies. You would pick Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien as the fandom, Aragorn as the character, and if you were open to him being paired with anyone or no one, you would tick 'Any' as the category. And then you would tick 'fic' for the Fic or Art boxes.

For requests, you can also fill in a URL to a letter elsewhere, or add optional details, including preferred ships or prompts.

Can I fill a request with art?

Yes! Art is welcome and you can request or offer it at signup.

Do I have to write a letter/fill in request details?

No, but if you do not, your author will not know what you would prefer to receive about that character and will have to write or draw based only on the character(s) you've picked and the category of fic or art you want. If you have particular ship preferences/OTPs/NOTPs, please be sure you've given your writer/artist some indication of what you like.

Your writer/artist should do their best to fulfil your request as stated in optional details or your letter, particularly as regards to avoiding your Do Not Wants (DNWs), but the only parts they have to fulfil are that they have to write/draw about the character in the fandom(s) you've chosen, and have to write/draw the category of fic or art that you've asked for. Writing a fic that is clearly based on the movies when book fic only has been requested (or vice versa) or writing a category of fic that wasn't requested (writing gen when m/m was requested, for instance), is against the rules.

It's also worth noting that this exchange will be largely hand-matched, so not filling in optional details or writing a letter decreases the chance that you'll get someone who really wants to write/draw what you want to receive. Writing a letter or adding request details is strongly encouraged.

I have a NOTP that I just can't write/draw but I want to offer this character!

If you aren't open to writing/drawing any ship that your recip might request but you want to offer the character, please unselect the category type that your NOTP falls into. For instance, if you NOTP Celeborn/Galadriel, but would like to write/draw Galadriel/Melian or Galadriel/Luthien, don't tick the 'F/M' category, and do tick the 'F/F' category for Galadriel. Do be aware that your recipient may request any of that category, so you may end up with a request for Galadriel/Goldberry.

If you have different preferences for different characters, you will be able to choose a fandom multiple times for both requests and offers, so you can make your preferences known. There will also be an optional details box available for both requests and offers so that you can get specific.

Generally speaking, if you wish to write/draw a particular ship but don't want to be assigned to write/draw for someone who wants fic/art about your NOTP, you're better off choosing to offer the less popular character in the ship. For instance, if you want to write Maedhros/Azaghal, but not Maedhros/Fingon, you're more likely to match to someone who wants Maedhros/Azaghal by offering Azaghal rather than Maedhros.

More FAQs to be added as and when they are asked! Please use this post to ask any questions you might have.

So I'm a bit confused about the sign-up form and how matching works. I know it's by character and not relationship, but does signing up for more than one character in specific request mean that those characters are supposed to appear in a fanwork together or are the request groupings random and all relationship stuff (gen or romantic/sexual) go into the optional details or letter? Or is the sign-up form more geared toward differentiating between relationship categories?

For example, if I want a fic involving Elladan, ElrohIr, and Arwen do I put them in Request 1 and stick the rest of the LotR characters I'm interested in gen for in Request 2 or do I list everyone in a single request?

Also, if I'm interested in polyfic from both the Silm and LotR but not involving the same characters, would it be better if I put down Silm--multi and LotR--multi in different requests or if I combine the fandoms and characters in one request dedicated to multi?

And what if there's a relationship I'm interested in f/f for but one of the women is in a relationship but infidelity is a squick-- would it be better to list it under f/f with an optional detail of "please have the man be okay with the relationship" or to list it under multi because it's a poly v relationship?

What if I'm interested in het for a character but his wife isn't listed in the tag set: should I go with het and put down his wife's name in the optional details or should I not list het at all and stick with genfic?

does signing up for more than one character in specific request mean that those characters are supposed to appear in a fan work togetherNo. It's 'or' matching rather than 'and' matching. You are only guaranteed to match on one character (though in reality you'll probably match on several) and your writer/artist only has to include one of your requested characters (though they must also use the category you requested and they offered).

are the request groupings random and all relationship stuff (gen or romantic/sexual) go into the optional details or letterYes, please. I'll be hand-matching, so I'll be paying attention to optional details/letters.

Or is the sign-up form more geared toward differentiating between relationship categories?Yes. If you want gen only for some characters in a particular 'fandom', then add those characters all together in one request and tick only 'gen'. Same for various kinds of ships.

For your first example, you can just put everyone together, and specify in optional details/letter.

For polyfic, you can, again, just put everyone together and specify in optional details. I can't guarantee that you'll necessarily get someone who wants to write the exact same configuration, but you will at least get someone who's okay to write polyfic with those characters.

For your f/f example, I think putting it under f/f and specifying in optional details that infidelity is something you don't want, and exactly as you word it, please have the husband be okay with the relationship. (It's kind of technically multi by the letter of things, but I think multi kind of implies everyone's involved, and for this scenario that really isn't the case, so f/f's fine.)

You're fine to request het for a character whose wife isn't in the tagset, just specify in optional details. :)

You are only guaranteed to match on one character (though in reality you'll probably match on several) and your writer/artist only has to include one of your requested characters

So it's best that I include prompts for both the relationship I want and the individual characters? What if I'm only interested in the relationships and don't want fic focused on just one of the characters?

I'll be hand-matching, so I'll be paying attention to optional details/letters.

I hope the hand-matching isn't onerous! Would it be easier on you for me to list what I'm interested in relationship-wise in the optional details and go into more detail in the letter or should I just use the letter? My likes and dislikes will only be in the letter. Oh! Should I also list my DNWs in my "offering to write" section, though they're fairly consistent for reading and writing?

If you want gen only for some characters in a particular 'fandom', then add those characters all together in one request and tick only 'gen'. Same for various kinds of ships.

Gotcha.

think putting it under f/f and specifying in optional details that infidelity is something you don't want, and exactly as you word it, please have the husband be okay with the relationship. (It's kind of technically multi by the letter of things, but I think multi kind of implies everyone's involved, and for this scenario that really isn't the case, so f/f's fine.)

Will do. (That's why I asked; it's how I use multi, too, but not everyone does.)

You're fine to request het for a character whose wife isn't in the tagset, just specify in optional details. :)

So it's best that I include prompts for both the relationship I want and the individual characters? What if I'm only interested in the relationships and don't want fic focused on just one of the characters?

That's what the category selection should take care of. It's best to separate your gen requests from your ship requests, and possibly put different kinds of ships in different requests as well. It's just that you are only guaranteed to actually match to at least one character (you might request 5 characters, but the person who I match you to might only have offered one of them).

For instance, let's say you wanted fic about Maglor, Anairë, Fingolfin, Nerdanel, and Ulmo. You only want gen for Ulmo, so you would put him in his own request and only select the category gen for that request.

You're fine with f/f about Anairë and Nerdanel, though not necessarily with each other. You would put them both in their own request and tick f/f for them. You'd then specify in optional details or your letter who you'd like them shipped with, and when I'm matching, I'll try to ensure you get someone who has a good chance of at least being open to writing that for you. (Or, you know, one of your requests, might not be this one.)

For Maglor and Fingolfin, you'd be happy with m/m, f/m, or poly, so you'd tick all of those categories in a third request, and again, explain in optional details exactly what you'd like to see.

Would it be easier on you for me to list what I'm interested in relationship-wise in the optional details and go into more detail in the letter or should I just use the letter?

I don't expect that there will be hundreds of signups, so I'm not expecting the matching to be too hard. (Famous last words!)

I'm totally fine with either - I'll be looking at both, so do whatever's easier for you. :)

But… I wasn't using relationship solely in the shipping sense. Using my example: I want a gen fic that includes Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen. I do not want a fic focusing on only one of them, though selecting each character implies that I do. Is a fic including all three something I can recieve in this exchange or should I select characters that I'd be happy with fic focusing solely on them? As you said, I'm only guaranteed to match on one character, so it seems like the latter is the better option. (I think I just answered my own question…)

I don't expect that there will be hundreds of signups, so I'm not expecting the matching to be too hard. (Famous last words!)

Is a fic including all three something I can recieve in this exchange or should I select characters that I'd be happy with fic focusing solely on them?

You did answer your own question, yes. A fic including all three of them is certainly something you could receive, but this exchange isn't set up to guarantee it. TBH, though, depending what exact characters you wanted in the story together, I don't think you would have any problems asking for them to appear together in the fic when you write your letter. Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen should be no problem, but if you were asking for, IDK, Bëor, Uldor, and Nerdanel to be in the same fic, that might be a more difficult ask for your writer! :)

In any case, I will try to match you up with someone I think will probably be up for writing what you want - that's the benefit of hand-matching for smaller exchanges.

I'm going to ask for Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen and if I'm not matchable on them together, there's plenty of other characters I'll be asking for. :) ETA: Badly worded because I didn't mean to imply that I wanted them above all others, but meant to say that I'm not trying to be trying and have others characters I'll be just as happy with.

if you were asking for, IDK, Bëor, Uldor, and Nerdanel to be in the same fic, that might be a more difficult ask for your writer!

It probably says something about me that I thought of a way. Not a happy way, but a way…